Just ordered a pair of buck boosters this morning for experimenting. I have one or two DE pins that have speaker hum but in all honesty not enough to bother me but worth trying this out for the cost.

Just did mine on a Playboy that was LOUD. You knew the machine was on when you were in the room loud, the loudest DE I have ever owned.

Now? The thing is so quiet is flipping eerie! Unless you have an ear within a foot or two of the speaker you can't tell its running.

Best. D.E. Mod. Ever.

I'll post a video shortly.

20201221_175541 (resized).jpg

Video up!

If your interested in one drop me a note.

I have enough parts for 8 more, doubtful if I'm going to make more after that as this was just a little side project and I'm told by a vendor z-connectors are not being restocked as the manufacturer has gone out of business.

These are plug and play: Molex connectors with key pin in place, z-connector, Trifurcon heavy duty contacts (because overkill) set for 12 volts on the dot and tested in my noisiest pin Playboy for an hour.

This should work in just about every Data East except the first two pins (Laser War and Torpedo Alley) with very early sound boards. The voltages look a little different and I need to double check first.

Gary

20210120_190025 (resized).jpg

20210120_182132 (resized).jpg

If you have other issues like questionable caps on the sound board, this may not be a fix for you. All the Data East pins here I have tried it on have had reduction in speaker noise. Some have been slight as they were pretty quiet to begin with and some have been dramatic like Playboy which was loud enough to be irritating while on in a workshop. Now you cant hear it at all.

Listed a few pages back.

Yes this works with the first revision boards with the addition of an extra wire. The reduction in hum on my Lazer War is notable, it's almost as bad as Playboy but still second place.

20210121_185904 (resized).jpg

Have you recapped the sound board? They are all far past their rated lifespan.

Yup, that is EXTREMELY abnormal. Is it just the cabinet speaker or all three? If its just the cabinet should be fairly easy to isolate that amp on the sound board.

Most of this discussion is in regards to the humm or buzzing noise you hear in this video. What your machine is doing is NOT normal or common.

I decided to check temps with Laser War running for an hour with a game running the temps were only 2 degrees over ambient.

20210122_185748 (resized).jpg

Dont see anything that would impact all three channels. Down by the amp should only impact the speaker that amp feeds. Look upstream of the amps.

You may wish to start a repair thread since the problem you are having is different than what is being discussed here.

I like simple but robust solutions to potential problems.

Someone suggested wrapping tape around the board to prevent a short in case of contact with a metal object.
I dont care for that myself as it traps in heat around the components and if routed proper should be a negligible risk.

This seems to work well on my Playboy and still allows airflow around the board and everyone has one about sooner or later

20210124_090613 (resized).jpg

Last Action Hero gets one as well.

Some slight hum left but cut by a notable amount, same for my Star Trek.

I'm thinking of ordering some more and doing another run, only one left at the moment. I'll have to get some more connectors too.

Whoever came up with this idea was just a genius.

So far tested in Laser War, Playboy, Star Wars (2), Star Trek, Last Action Hero. Improvements in all cases, some rather dramatic.

All are sold, I should be able to do a second batch in 2 weeks (parts are already on order) and they will be a little less each than the first batch as I have some z-connectors left over.

Starting on second batch.

While waiting for connectors to arrive, setting voltages on the bench to speed things up.

20210130_202323 (resized).jpg

Reduces or eliminates hum noise in speakers, common issue on DE pins and subject of this forum posting.

20210120_190025 (resized).jpg

I'll put up a post when the next batch has been run off, drop me a PM then. Hopefully the package from Great Plains Electronics is in this week and I'll start assembling next weekend. I'm going to start this week so next weekend I'll just be slapping connectors into housings and doing final checks in pins.

Edit: just a quick note. People have been picking at this for a long time now, this thread is 8 years old!

I'm just a guy who tried one of the solutions presented and thought "I can run off a bunch plug and play for people who dont have the time nor tools" and subsidize the same fix for my own Data East pins.

It should not matter as it is a voltage regular. Once you set the voltage it should maintain the output voltage setting regardless of the input voltage as long as the input is in the acceptable input range. The ones I use list 5V to 32V as acceptable input.

I'm just taking the existing 12v+ input and running it through the booster for 12v+ out to filter the output. Of note, on the machines I have been checking inputs on they are rarely at 12 volts and often down around 11.9 volts. I'm setting the boosters to 12.05 with a Fluke class III meter on final setting.

That's awesome.

I have noticed that there is some machine noise hum when the sound card isn't even plugged in! I have not looked close to determine what it is but suspect a combination of transformer and display.

Unplug the sound board power and try it yourself to see. Not enough to get excited about but interesting to me.

Going to try and bust these all out today. My bad luck there is another storm coming this weekend and I'll get nothing done sunday as I'll be onsite directing snow removal all day and keeping staff safe.

20210206_104734 (resized).jpg

Resized_20201217_101145 (resized).jpeg

Time to head out to shop for final voltage check and one hour run test.

20210206_150506 (resized).jpg

$48 each shipped with US Priority shipping. For each additional unit deduct an $8.
Two is $88
Three is $128

I have a single unit setup for Laser War with the extra wire required, if ordering for that application let me know.

5 already spoken for, 11 left.

Orders going out Wednesday, if you want to get in on this shipment drop me a PM before 9AM tomorrow morning.

Gary

Outstanding! Amazing how much a difference they can make on some titles.

Thank you for the kind words, I'm already noodling the next version.

Need to get some work done on a few projects first though.

Maybe Secret Service and Torpedo alley. Anyone who has ordered one from me with those games I have included the extra wire.

$48 each shipped with US Priority shipping. For each additional unit deduct an $8.

Two is $88
Three is $128

Thank you, hoping to add Batman next month. I'm fixing to do another batch at that time so send me a pm if interested. Overseas shipping is more.

Yes.

I don't agree with that, 2 degrees over ambient is nothing.

20210122_185748 (resized).jpg

Possible. I had one go bad after an hour of play on my own machine. China quality tends to be uneven at times which is beyond our control.

Temp wise did not note anything unusual and was checking them after they had been in a machine for an hour under load.

Half the parts just arrived from Great Plains Electronics, rest should be here shortly.

Gary

Parts are in guys! When I start assembling I'll return your PM's

Gary

Good looking piece, I like it! A more elegant solution.

Heads up to everyone waiting on me to do another batch, I'm doubtful about doing this next batch even though I have the parts. The quality of the available boosters seem uneven with two failures in the past 48 hours and the vendor seems fairly disinterested in making this right.

Since I'm making only a nominal amount of money on this I'm actually losing money at this point with the 2 failures.

For the current batch of boosters I have on hand I'm going to return them to Amazon and just eat the cost of the other components. For the two people with dead units I'll just give them the ones from my machines.

Gary

I was toying with a new design and still might proto it out but ChanceKJ board looks pretty well thought out.

I'm not picky, I can work with a Boxing day discount!

Bad advice; some new boards generate even more noise than the originals.

X-Pin is notorious for making noise, I know I purchased one "as the best" for an LW3

I'm not upset at all, I'm just pointing out what people and myself have experienced.

I had superb results with buckboosters but they were so hit or miss on reliability I stopped making them. The filter board sold by the Canadian guys is a good place to start if all your connections are good and you have no obvious cap issues.

Yup, I stopped making them as the buck boosters that were available had dubious reliability. When they worked, they were great!